9-29-11 - Nuthin' but a buncha tweaks

Development Log for yesterday and today (so far):

- Added new collisions for active bombs
- you can now manually fall through the moving platforms (down button + jump)
- coins now bounce
- fixed slope collisions
- ceiling detection bug fixed (kinda)

for the rest of this day I'll be working on:

- finishing up coin collisions
- top status bar
- custom counter system

No video today as there's not much to show off...

stay tuned!

9-27-11 - Solving the Shademap Puzzle

Posting a late blog post tonight as there's not much to update on (but I should try to keep y'all updated regardless) At the moment I'm trying to figure out a way that I can apply a shademap to each of the in game maps. If I somehow succeed in doing this I could add a whole new layer of atmosphere to the game. But right now I'm stumped on how to get this thing to work how I want it to...

For it to function properly, I need to somehow mask out the background so that the shademap would only affect over the foreground objects. BlitzMax does have some pretty advanced masking commands but I'm just not sure how to apply them properly.  So currently I'm seeking help with this from the Blitz Community. Its all very slow going atm :P

I hope to get more things done tomorrow! So stay tuned.

9-26-11 - BOMBS! / I've recovered!

Today's video showcases the bomb and the bomb blocks which I think looks totally cool while in action! 

I may even make a few little Zelda style secret doorways that you have to bomb to gain access to. Just putting that thought out there for opinions, of course. :)

And in other (good) news, I've recovered from my little shame spell yesterday. The guy who hosts my web storage thought my brony explanation was pretty dang funny (in a good kind of way) and told me to think nothing of it! And with that bit of news I can feel rest assured about continuing to host the test demo downloads at that domain!

I is a happy brony! :D

9-25-11 - My Bronydom and the game at Risk

> Web service used to store test demos exceeds bandwidth limits
> Contacts the guy who hosts service requesting bandwidth upgrade
> He obliges and then finds out the cause of Bandwidth limit break
> Asks me about the license of the content and feels it could put his service at risk
> I explain to him that the franchise and the company it belongs to doesn't mind
> feels somewhat embarrassed about the game's content and feels obligated to explain the fandom
> writes a huge block of text explaining the fandom and why I'm in the 'herd'
> still waiting for a response with huge knot in stomach
> also hopes he doesn't go blab to my sister or outside friends about it

Is it wrong for me to feel so... ashamed to be a brony right now? :(

In other news I've got more work done on the game and was going to put up a video but the current circumstances has me questioning my bronydom... I hope this feeling fades before morning!

9-24-11 - Procrastination Can Be Productive!

Ha! This weeks Pony episode was EPIC!

but let's get on with the news...

As you can probably tell by the title, I've been procrastinating since yesterday. Spending some time rearranging my apartment a bit and making some purchases online.

To be fair, the online purchasing was kind of to help me with the production of Spike's Quest, so I was being productive by procrastinating! Go figure :3

So what did I buy? (not that you'd be interested)

This here is a portable desk! I can move it anywhere and use it sitting or lying down which makes production all the more relaxed! (and gives me more reasons to be a complete lazy ass) I can set it up on my bed, my couch, on a nice rug, outdoors, anywhere! Which makes this purchase a very fine investment indeed! Of course, I still cant work on Spike's Quest hanging upside down or under the kitchen sink, but that would just be silly!

For one to develope good games one must PLAY good games! Some may argue with me on this one though. Castlevania Lament of Innocence for the Playstation 2 has been a subject for heavy criticism since its release back in 2003. From what I've seen of the game on an LP a while back, I'd have to say that it looks just perfect as a 3D Castlevania game! Let's see... huge explorable areas? check. Mythical monsters from the underworld? check! Vampires and the vampire killer? check! Yep, its definitely a Castlevania game!

For the most part, while developing Spike's Quest one of the games I've been playing the most was Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance for the Gameboy Advance and the other 2D sidescrolling Castlevania games with the Metroid feel (the graphics on all of them are something to be admired!) But after a while I feel I need a new field of inspiration so I went and purchased Lament of Innocence thinking that it just might help boast my inspiration meter for the game! Can you really blame me?

And for my last purchase of the night I purchased a PSP AV cable for the soul purpose of linking my PSP to a TV. How is this productive? Well as stated already I play games to help me develop games. This would simply just let me play my hacked PSP on a larger screen. The small screen can get a little tiring after a while :P.

Yeah... okay, that doesn't effect much production-wise...

but still!

As far as apartment rearrangements go, I did move my workstation again. This time to my room. Everything's nicely setup once again with all three of my computers placed where I can access them with such ease. I do this to keep things interesting, of course!

Game Boss Log: Phantom Discord

Boss Name: Phantom Discord
Location: Ancient Labyrinth

Inspiration: Inspired from the concept of Phantom Ganon for The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

Description: Mechanics of this boss fight are still in the brainstorming department. But pretty much this is just a Phantom replica of the sinister troublemaker, Discord. He's a ghostly green in color (and equally, ghostly transparent.) AND he can reverse gravity while shooting spark balls in multiple directions

that's all I have for now...

edit: Oh, and even though it may not be of importance, this will be one of the few elements in the game where I'd use actual recorded sound bytes, borrowing his deep grumbling laugh from the cartoons and the quality cut short so it'd sound as if it were coming from a Gameboy sound card.

9-23-11 - Bending Brigde!/Originality Check

Today's update is a short and simple showcase of a functioning bending bridge system. Not only do the bridges bend but you can also manually fall through them like you can the blue platforms. It may not seem like much but I've spent several hours trying to figure this darn thing out! So enjoy this short video of me bouncing around on the things as if they were trampolines!

In other news, I've decided that once Spike's Quest is finished I plan on taking the engine and using it to make something entirely original! So all yee naysayers out there who criticize me for not being original with this game go boil yer heads! :D (this could also mean I could somehow profit with this engine if used properly.(and by original, I mean not a fan game based off a certain franchise... My OWN ideas dawgs!))

edit: I was kidding about the profiting bit. Y'all can relax! I totally like making freeware stuff ;3 Honestly!